Ryan Laughlin, Director of Cultivation for Kushberry Farms – Interview Series

With over a decade and a half of experience in the oftentimes precarious world of quality cannabis cultivation, Ryan Laughlin currently serves as Director of Cultivation for the popular Nevada cannabis brand Kushberry Farms. From indoor facilities of various sizes and layouts to a 40,000 sq. ft. greenhouse, Laughlin has diligently learned and implemented the most proper and efficient techniques to grow quality cannabis flower throughout all types of facilities and methods of cultivation.

How did you first get into cannabis cultivation and what roadblocks did you experience when first working in cannabis?

My career in cannabis started like many others, in an illegal market. The money was what drew me in at first. My family gave me an opportunity to move to Northern California and live on a cannabis farm. I took that opportunity and began my career. I started out working with family and friends. At first working in cannabis had many legal roadblocks, mostly it being illegal. Another big hurdle for us, is the hiring pool was very shallow and usually consisted of less than qualified people. You worked with what you got. Going on Indeed to search resumes was not a thing for us.

What are your duties as Director of Cultivation and what do they usually consist of? What are some lesser known parts of the job that consumers and employees outside of cultivation may not know about?

The position of Director of Cultivation is a very interesting role. It was created once the legal market matured. It comes from the need of traditional business to have titles, roles and responsibilities for employees. I think we all can agree that is a good thing. The problem lies with the inconsistent way that role is defined from company to company. Most commonly, the role is associated with overseeing the health and well being of the garden. Maintaining an accurate harvest schedule is another major role for most Cultivation Directors. That often involves delegation of staff labor throughout the plant’s life cycle. Some companies might have more of the business side involved with that role, like managing compliance or hiring/firing. In my experience, the main role for all Directors of Cultivations is to grow the garden!

As someone who’s worked in cultivation for facilities that range greatly in size, what would you say are some common issues that larger grows deal with that smaller grows don’t have to, and vice versa?

Size of a cultivation or their “footprint” will often determine what their business strategy will be. Generally the larger the footprint the more likely you would be trying to grow and sell in a volume play. Grow a lot without a high focus on quality. The smaller operators will usually move to more connoisseur style products, focusing on premium quality. There’s a way to maneuver between the two but it is not as common to see large grows aiming for top quality. The cost to operate is always the determining factor. Footprint matters when choosing how to grow your flower. 

From your experience in both state industries, does the Nevada cannabis industry have certain advantages over the California industry? Inversely, does Nevada cannabis hold certain disadvantages over the California industry?

One unique thing about the cannabis industry is the fact that legal requirements can vary not only from state to state, but also from county to county. Nevada is a little different than the other West Coast states, in that it was never a popular place to grow cannabis. The desert region in Nevada (Las Vegas)  is not thought of as an ideal growing environment unlike California, Washington and Oregon. Multiple generations of cannabis cultivation has been going on in the West Coast for decades. Whole communities lived and thrived from cannabis farming all over the Pacific Northwest. When legal regulations were passed, those communities were considered and the regulations were created with the existing market in place. That created unique circumstances that won’t make sense in other areas or markets. 

Nevada on the other hand, didn’t have extensive legacy markets to build around. Nevada was able to create something different from what the other West Coast states had. Nevada was able to set the regulations that made sense to them as a state, and if you want to operate in that state you can abide by the laws or go home. This is probably going to reflect what true federal legalization looks like more, in my opinion.

What professional qualities make for a successful and reliable cannabis cultivator as well as a team player?

The best quality for someone working in cultivation is hard work. I often get asked about the “culture” in cannabis, but to me the culture is agriculture! It is farming, you need to be a hard worker and flexible. Plants don’t take days off!

How do you see federal rescheduling impacting both your role as Director of Cultivation and the Nevada cannabis industry as a whole? Do you see federal rescheduling as possibly opening the doors for great opportunities for the Nevada industry or further hindering its growth with more regulation?

Federal rescheduling is potentially a scary thing for me. I don’t have any formal schooling or degrees, and as the largest companies began to enter the cannabis space with rescheduling, I might not fit the mold of big business in America. It is hard to say how it will affect us as a whole. I can say that just rescheduling and putting cannabis into the hands of the medical industry would be a devastating blow to decades of reforms and activism by true cannabis pioneers.